Faded Memories
by animecutie610
Summary: The ninja have lost their memories for their own protection and they wind up as normal students, but their past is not one that is easily forgotten. "Okay, so we're stuck in a dark high school with a bunch of snake-people. Does this sound like a bad horror movie to anyone else?"
1. Chapter 1

Gloved hands clenched a golden nun-chuck and swung them at the oncoming enemies. Garbled voices made their way through the noise and confusion.

"...too many!"

"Get out of...!"

"We need to...!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jay groaned and swatted blindly at his alarm clock. He'd been having a weird dream, but he couldn't remember the details. Images and snatches of voice swam in his head, but he couldn't quite make out what they were.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Ugnnh," Jay groaned at he sat up and turned his alarm clock off. He got ready for school and with a quick goodbye to his parents, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and rode his bike to his school, which was in a town close to his parent's junk yard.

* * *

"Kai! Get up! You're going to be late and I'm not waiting for you!" Nya shouted at her brother. Kai appeared next to her with bedhead and a crooked jacket.

"I'm ready!"

"You look like a mess," his sister said.

He shrugged and grabbed his backpack and a black duffle bag that was lying by the door and the two siblings began walking to school.

It took a good 20 minutes to walk to the nearest town where their school was, but the blacksmith shop wasn't doing as well without their dad, so they couldn't afford to go by car. However, they never seemed to get that tired while walking.

* * *

Cole rushed past his dad with a piece of toast clenched between his teeth. He rifled through papers on the kitchen counter, tossing anything he didn't need to the side.

"Dad, have you seen my music folio? I need it for practice after school," he called, grabbing the toast so he could speak.

"Is it in your case?"

"No, I already-GOT IT!" He raised the music above his head triumphantly until he heard a car honking outside.

"Tina's here!" his dad called.

"I'm coming!"

Cole stuffed the music into his backpack, took a last bite of toast, and then grabbed his saxophone case and rushed out the door.

* * *

Zane woke up to the sound of his falcon cawing. He sat up and stretched, his pet swooping over to perch on his arm.

"Good morning," he said cheerily.

Zane quickly got ready for the day. Then, he made himself cereal and looked around his apartment, which he had rented to be close to school.

"Something doesn't feel quite right..." he said to himself. "It feels like it should be...louder at breakfast."

Zane knew that was ridiculous, it was only him and his falcon that lived there, so it was never that loud. Still, he felt like there should be laughter and horsing around.

He shook the thought from his head and started walking to school with his falcon. "I'll see you after school," he told him as the falcon swooped away.

Zane wasn't worried about him flying away, the falcon always came back. In fact, it wasn't really his pet; he didn't get it from a store, it just started following him around everywhere.

* * *

Lloyd sighed and sat next to his uncle at the table on the Destiny's Bounty. "It's been months, Uncle, and we still haven't found anything," he said dejectedly.

"Have faith," Sensei Wu said as he placed a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "We'll find a way to help them."

Lloyd nodded, though he didn't look convinced. "I wonder what's it's like. You know, forgetting you're a ninja. I bet they're all bored with normal life."


	2. Chapter 2

Cole and Tina grabbed their instruments from the car and started to head out to the school building.

Cole eyed Tina's most-likely bruised foot as she dropped her tuba yet again. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied as she picked it up again.

"You sure you don't want to switch to a lighter instrument?" Cole asked.

Tina brushed him off and hauled her tuba into the building. She dropped her tuba five more ties before they got to the band room-twice on her foot, once on the ground, and once on Cole's foot.

Once band class started, she popped open her case and set it on her lap.

"Don't drop it," Cole said, rubbing his foot from his seat in front of her. He reached down and started to put his saxophone together.

"Don't drop it," Tina said back in high-pitch voice.

Cole rolled his eyes and put his reed in his mouth as an excuse not to make a smart-aleck comment.

Despite their constant bickering, Tina and Cole were actually good friends. She was one of the first friends he'd met at marching band camp over the summer. At first, he was far from excited about it-his dad had talked him into it-but he actually enjoyed it.

* * *

Kai tried not to fall asleep. He really did. But when his history teacher turned off the lights, put up a PowerPoint, and started to lecture for the entire hour, he just couldn't help it.

"...stop them!"

"Kai, you go...!"

"Kai."

"Kai!"

"Kai! Wake up, man."

Kai opened his eyes groggily to find that the room was bright and class was over. His friend Adam was shaking his shoulder and trying to wake him up.

"You seriously got to stop falling asleep. We can't have you failing; we need you on the team."

Adam was the captain of the fencing team, and Kai was his personal "project". He had seen Kai's great reflexes when someone had accidentally thrown a ball at the back of his head. As if it was second nature to him, he had ducked, twisted around, caught the ball and thrown it right back.

It was that point when Adam had came up to him and asked if he wanted to join the fencing team. Adam had taught him all the rules, but Kai was a natural and didn't need much more than that to become one of their best teammates.

* * *

Jay sighed as a kid avoided his gaze and his flyer. Again. He had been trying to get new team members for the school's robotics team, but everyone he tried to ask had blown him off.

"Join the Robotics Club!" he called out to no one in particular and pushed flyers towards anyone near him.

"We have free snacks," he tried again weakly.

He held one out to a pretty girl walking past. To his surprise, she actually stopped and looked at it.

"It sounds interesting. When do you meet?" she asked.

Jay broke out into a smile. "Every Wednesday after school."

She sighed and handed the flyer back to him. "Sorry, I go to my brother's fencing practice on Wednesdays."

Jay's enthusiasm died down. "Oh. Well it was nice talking to you anyways. What's your name?"

"Nya. You?"

"Jay."

Nya smiled at him. "I'll see you around sometime, Jay."

"Uh... Okay." he muttered dreamily as she walked away.

He shook his head. Robotics Club. That's right. He needed to get at least one more member or they wouldn't qualify for competition.

The hallway cleared as everyone headed to their homes or after-school clubs.

Jay started to walk outside and he saw a guy standing quietly under a tree, looking up at the sky for some reason.

"I don't suppose you'd like to join the Robotics Club?" he asked.

"Sure," the guy said.

Jay did a double-take. "Wh-what?"

"I get the feeling I'm supposed to be friends with you." He shrugged.

Jay raised an eyebrow at him. "Excuse me?"

He didn't take his eyes off the sky. "I get feelings like that a lot. My name is Zane, by the way."

"I'm Jay," he held out his hand and Zane shook it.

Suddenly, a falcon swooped down and rested on Zane's arm.

"What's that?"

"My friend," Zane said simply. He cocked his head to the side as though something just occurred to him. "May I bring him to the club?"

Jay laughed. "You can bring a crocodile for all I care."

Zane glanced away from his falcon and at Jay. "You need another member and are relieved I'm joining?" He said it as a question.

"How'd you know?" Jay asked.

Zane shrugged. "Just a feeling."


	3. Chapter 3

Cole rushed down the hallway, late for marching band practice as usual, Tina right behind him.

"C'mon, we'll be late," he called to her.

"We already are," she wheezed back, clutching her tuba and running to keep up with Cole. "You're fast."

Cole shrugged. He wasn't even breathing heavily.

Tina started to sprint to pass up Cole. She looked back with a smirk and said, "Who's fast now?"

Unfortunately, Tina didn't see the guy coming out of a classroom right in front of her.

CRASH!

"Ow!"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

Cole help Tina lift her tuba off the guys foot. "You okay?" he asked.

He rubbed his foot. "Other than my foot being squashed? Perfect."

"Sorry about that," Cole said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tina here isn't the most coordinated person."

"It's fine," the guy brushed him off. "I'm Kai, by the way."

"Cole."

Tina shook Cole's shoulder, "We're going to be late for practice." She started to rush off.

"I gotta go, but hey, why don't you come to the football game this Friday. We're playing the halftime show."

Kai smiled. "Sounds like a deal. See you there."

* * *

Zane walked to the science room after school. He poked his head inside to see Jay and two other people gathered around a metal chassis.

Jay looked up and saw him standing in the doorway. A smile lit up his face. "Zane! Come on in."

He spread his arms and said, "Welcome to the Robotics Club!"

A girl with glasses perched on her thin nose gave Zane a wave and a tentative smile. "Hi. I'm Margret."

"Thomas," said a ginger boy, nodding his head in Zane's direction.

Jay clapped his hands together. "So now you've met the gang. Let's get down to business."

Zane stepped over to the metal chassis and looked at the gears and wires that were on top of it.

"This year for the tournament we're supposed to build a machine that can throw a foam ball into a hoop for points. We're thinking about doing an air-cannon sort of thing," Thomas explained.

The four started talking about the design of the machine until it was time for the club to end.

Afterwards, Jay and Zane walked out of the school together.

"You know, you're pretty cool," Jay commented.

"I enjoy being friends with you as well," Zane said. As they reached the outdoors, Zane stopped walking and looked to the sky.

Jay kept walking, then noticed that Zane wasn't with him and turned around. "Waiting for your falcon?" he asked.

"Yes," Zane said. "I hope he didn't mind waiting an extra hour today."

Jay watched him curiously as the falcon swooped down and landed on Zane's outstretched arm. "What's his name?"

Zane blinked at him. "His name? I've never given him a name. He's more of a free spirit, so I never really thought it would be right to."

"You should give him a really cool name! Like... Lightning."

"Lightning?" Zane echoed.

"Yeah!" Jay said, a goofy smile spreading over his face.

Zane furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't know. Do you like it?" he asked the falcon. He chirped, seemingly indignant, and ruffled his feathers.

"No, I don't think you do. Perhaps something a bit less... Unordinary?"

Jay pouted. "I thought it was a good name."

"What about Jack?" Zane asked. The falcon's head perked up and Zane smiled. "I think he likes it."

"Jack?" Jay asked. "Not too interesting."

Zane laughed. "Would you rather it be Jack Frost?"

Jay laughed as well. "Why not? Jack Frost it is!"

"I think I'll just call him Jack for short," Zane replied, shaking his head at Jay's antics.


	4. Chapter 4

As Zane walked to school the next day, he tried to forget about the weird feeling he had whenever he was around Jay. He was used to getting premonitions, but they were usually small things, like when someone was about to trip or when he was being lied to.

Usually he just chalked it up to being able to read body language well, or just noticing details others missed. But Jay gave him a serious sense of deja-vu, and he could never tell why.

Zane had gotten the same feeling before, but it never lasted long and it wasn't nearly as strong. He remembered feeling it while walking through the halls, and it was only after a while that he realized he was passing the same people whenever he got it.

A boy with messy brown hair.

A girl with short black hair.

A guy with wavy black hair.

And Jay. He'd gotten it before when passing Jay in the hall.

Zane ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He turned toward Jack, who was perched on a fence nearby, waiting for Zane to catch up to him (humans are way too slow in his opinion). "I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, its not like anything bad is going to happen, right?"

Zane laughed nervously. "There's probably nothing going on." Jack hopped from side to side. Zane sighed and muttered to himself, "You don't believe me either, do you?"

* * *

Kai tapped his pencil against his textbook, wondering if maybe he should just take a nap.

His science class was usually pretty, mostly because the teacher was totally awesome, but today they had gotten a substitute that decided they should do their work silently (even though the teacher had left a note saying they were supposed to have group discussions on it).

A glance at the clock told Kai that there was still half an hour of the class left, even though he already finished the packet they were working on.

Ugh.

So.

Bored.

He opened his notebook and ripped out the corner of a piece of paper, which he then proceeded to scribble a message on and pass it to sister, who sat at the table next to his.

_Got invited to the game Friday. Wanna come too?_

It was less than a minute before the paper was tossed back onto his table, with Nya's much neater handwriting on the back.

_Sure. Mind explaining why you're mentioning this now instead of this morning, when we weren't supposed to be silent?_

There was no more room on the corner so Kai ripped another piece out of his notebook, earning himself a glare from the sub.

_I forgot, okay?_

When Nya read the paper, she glanced up to give Kai a smirk and an eye-roll.

Kai glanced up at the clock. Still twenty minutes to go.

* * *

When school let out, Jay walked out to see Zane staring up at the sky, as expected.

Jay looked at him and realized he didn't really know too much about him. He decided to remedy that.

"Hey, Zane," he said, jogging over to him. "What's up?"

"Jack, I suppose..." Zane said uncertainly, looking at the black figure approaching them from the sky.

Jay chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, saying, "That's not exactly what I meant."

Jack reached them and landed on a low-hanging branch on a tree near them.

"How long have you had him?" Jay asked, suddenly curious.

Zane stared at him for a second before furrowing his eyebrows and replying, "I honestly can't remember a time when we weren't friends."

"Oh," Jay said weakly, extremely aware that their conversation was dying out pretty fast, and fumbling for something to say.

"Um, so you know how there's a football game tomorrow?"

Zane tilted his head to the side. "Oh? There is?"

"Yeah, and I, uh, I mean, me and Thomas and Margret are going."

Zane smiled. "I hope you enjoy yourselves."

_God, why is keeping a decent conversation up with this guy so hard?_ Jay thought to himself. _He pretty much just keeps to himself._

"Well," Jay tried again. "The thing is; we were wondering if you wanted to come with us."

Zane looked mildly surprised. He never had actually gotten invited to do much.

"It sounds fun."

Jay kept himself from sighing in relief. _Finally we're getting somewhere._

"Well, I should get heading home," he said, heading towards the bike rack. "See you tomorrow."

Zane waved at him as he kicked off the ground and weaved through the other departing students.


	5. Chapter 5

The night of the big game, the marching band director had all the members of the band gather together for a big pep-talk, which mostly consisted of reminding them of every critique he had the last practice, along with a "Let's blow them away!" added at the end.

Cole rested his saxophone on his leg and rubbed his neck. He _really_ needed to get a better neck strap; the one he had always made his neck red after games and he was the only person in his section without a padded one.

Tina stood next to him, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Would you just calm down," Cole told her. "We've done this a million times."

"But I was going to practice the beginning of the first song at home because the fingering is tricky, but I never did, so I'll probably mess it up. And I _always_ forget the key change at measure 34!" she rattled on nervously.

Cole sighed and shook his head at her. "You'll be fine. You're always fine."

She gave a huff and crossed her arms. "Easy for you to say. You've got the melody; the bass line is, like, _awful_. We always change notes on the upbeats and don't even _get me started_ on the accidentals!" She put her hands over her eyes and groaned. (A/N: sorry to non-band kids about all the band lingo)

Cole rolled his eyes and muttered, "You're such a drama queen."

He didn't even flinch when Tina punched him on the shoulder.

* * *

Kai and Nya were walking up the stairs to the stands. Kai gave his sister a glance over his shoulder and asked, "Do you see any open seats?"

Nya scanned the crowd and then pointed at an opening on the other side. "Over there seems to have some room."

Kai pushed his way through the crowd, with Nya following closely after.

When they arrived at a space large enough for the both of them, they sat down with sighs of relief-after all, they had walked from their house, which was usually the reason they didn't go to games.

Nya looked to her side and saw a boy with brown hair that she could have sworn she'd seen before.

She pondered it for a moment before her eyes lit up in recognition.

She tapped his shoulder. "Jay, right?"

He looked over at her and furrowed his eyebrows for a second before realizing who she was. "Yeah. Nya?"

Nya smiled. "Yeah. How's that... what was it? ... Robotics Club doing?"

Jay smiled. "It's going really well. We have enough people to compete this year, which is a huge relief."

"Sorry I couldn't join," she said.

Jay waved her off. "It's fine. In fact, it was right after I saw you that I got Zane to join."

Nya tilted her head to the side. "Zane?"

Jay turned to his other side and tapped a blonde boy's shoulder. "Zane, this is Nya," he said, gesturing at her. "Nya, meet Zane."

Nya reached over Jay to shake Zane's hand. "Nice to meet you."

He smiled and nodded, though there was a flash of confusion in his eyes, but it passed so quickly Nya thought she imagined it. "You too."

Kai leaned forward to be seen behind Nya. "Hey, I'm Kai."

"Hello," Zane said politely.

* * *

_No way,_ Zane thought to himself. _Everyone I got the weird feeling with is here except for that black-haired guy..._

He heard Jay ask Nya why he never saw her at the games.

"Oh, we usually don't go," she answered. "But tonight, we got invited by a member of the marching band, Cole."

Jay nodded and considered the name for a moment. "I think I have Math with him," he said. "Black hair, thick eyebrows?"

_Oh don't tell me..._ Zane thought, stifling a sigh. He had a feeling that this was not good. Not good at all.

"Yeah, that's him," Nya said.

_Well that's not good._ Zane tried to pay attention to the game, but even the loudly cheering fans couldn't stifle his sense of foreboding.

* * *

Lloyd was pouring over some scrolls his mother had thought might help with the current state of the ninja when the alarm on the Bounty went off.

He jumped up and looked at the monitor to see what was going on. "Oh no..." he said to himself.

His uncle walked in, and seeing his unease, asked, "Is something wrong?"

"There's Serpentine activity," Lloyd responded.

Wu raised an eyebrow at him. "The Serpentine have been acting up frequently lately. Anything different about this that's got you so worried?"

Lloyd shook his head. "It's not the Serpentine I'm worried about," he said, pointing at the map. "It's where they're headed."

Wu took a deep breath. "The school." He turned to Lloyd. "You should go. Hopefully, you can stop their plans before they gather any attention."

Lloyd nodded and started heading out the door.

"And Lloyd?" his uncle called after him. Lloyd turned around. "I fear the ninja will not be able to protect themselves in their current state, but even so, they must not remember. If worse comes to worse, you'll have to protect them while they have no knowledge of who you are."

Lloyd nodded. "Don't worry, Sensei. I'll make sure nothing happens."


	6. Chapter 6

Cole took off his heavy marching band uniform after the game and went out with Tina to meet up with Kai.

"Hey!" he called out when he saw the familiar spikes of Kai's brown hair in the crowd.

Kai turned and waved at him, beckoning him over. He and Tina pushed their way through the crowd.

Tina smiled at Kai. "Hey. By the way, sorry for hitting you and running off like that the other day. But my section leader would've killed me if I'd been late again."

Kai shrugged and said, "I told you, it's fine."

Cole gave a short laugh and nudged Tina with his shoulder. "You were still late anyways, though."

She hung her head, muttering, "And I got an earful after practice."

Kai laughed and shook his head.

A girl with black hair came up to them. Cole vaguely recognized her as Kai's sister. They had Spanish together.

"Hey guys," she said cheerily.

Tina waved at her. "You're, uh... Nya, right?"

Nya nodded. "That's me. Hey, do you guys know Jay and Zane?" she asked, gesturing towards two guys behind her.

Cole shook his head. "Don't think so."

Nya called them over and they turned away from a ginger boy and a girl with glasses that they were talking to.

For a moment when the blonde first locked eyes with him, Cole thought he looked like he was about to be sick, but the moment passed and an easy smile made its way to his face.

"Hello. You must be Cole. I'm Zane." he said.

"And I'm Jay. Nice to meet you." the brunette added.

Tine gave them a smile and said, "I'm Tina, and I'd love to stick around, but I promised my ride I'd head straight out to the parking lot. See you around?"

Jay nodded. "Alright."

Tina rushed off, leaving the four boys and Nya.

However, very few people had actually left the field when screams were heard.

"What's going on?" Kai yelled over the noise.

Then they saw the creatures that were attacking the stands.

Jay's mouth dropped open. "S-serpentine?" he stuttered. "I thought they were only myths!"

Cole shook his head and blinked as if he was hallucinating and could snap himself out of it. "I've heard about how there were some sightings a while ago, but I just chalked it up to people wanting attention or kids playing a prank or something."

Nya grabbed her brother's arm. "Why would they want to attack a school?"

Zane swallowed a lump in his throat. All the bad feelings he'd had were nothing compared to the great weight that had settled in his chest when he saw what he assumed to be the leader: a blue snake holding a staff.

"Come on," he said, his throat dry. "We've got to get out of here."

"The school," Cole said, pointing at the building. "It should be easier to hide in there."

There were already kids running into the school, out into the parking lot, and pretty much anywhere that was away from the Serpentine.

Kai nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go."

* * *

Lloyd got to the school as fast as he could, but he was already too late to stop the Serpentine before they drew attention to themselves.

And quite a lot of attention they drew, attacking while most of the student body was at the football game.

Lloyd shook his head to himself. He wondered if they were just attacking randomly or if they knew the ninja were there. Either way, he needed to find them and make sure the Serpentine didn't trigger their memories. And still find a way to make sure _he_ didn't trigger them.

He couldn't help but think how much better he'd feel if he had the others to back him up.

He reached the field and stopped dead when he heard Skales yell, "I want you to find those ninja!"

Lloyd jumped forward and landed in front of him.

"I heard you were looking for ninja. Well, here I am."

"Get him!" Skales shouted.

Lloyd jumped out of the way of a Constrictai that had lunged for him. "Ninja-Go!" He spun in a green tornado and knocked away two more Serpentine.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw five familiar figures running towards the school.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat," he said. "But I really should be going."

With that, he spun again and cleared a path to the stands and hid behind them. When the Serpentine had come to look for him, he was already long gone.


	7. Chapter 7

The five students rushed into the school to find safety from the Serpentine.

Cole looked around anxiously, "We should find somewhere to hide."

"The science lab where we meet for Robotics Club is near here," Jay suggested.

"Lead the way," Nya said, spreading her arms out.

Jay led them to a room that with empty tables with stools around them.

Just then, the lights all flickered out.

"Perfect," Kai grumbled.

"Okay, so we're stuck in a dark high school with a bunch of snake-people. Does this sound like a bad horror movie to anyone else?" Jay said, sounding a little hysterical. Though, under the circumstances, it was impressive how well he held together.

Zane stood off to the side, with his arms crossed and a thoughtful look on his face.

On the inside, however, he was having what most people would call a "freak-out", except it was probably the most calm and calculated freak-out in history.

Because what could he hope to do now? All his premonitions were coming to light and he had absolutely no idea what he could do to stop it.

And he had the feeling that he really needed to stop it.

So he had a few options.

He could let this play out and hope for the best.

He could help with the escape effort the others were trying to plan. (Emphasis on _trying_.)

Or, he could try to get to the bottom of this.

He went with the third option.

"Excuse me," he said, interrupting the others, who were finding out very fast that getting out of the school without a confrontation was nigh impossible.

"Yeah?" Cole asked him.

Zane hesitated, but steeled his resolve and said slowly, "I think the Serpentine are after certain people at the school."

Kai raised an eyebrow at him. "How do you figure?"

"Is it one of your weird premonitions that always turn out to be true?" Jay asked.

"You get premonitions?" Nya asked curiously.

"Yes to both," Zane responded.

Cole cocked his head to the side. "Do your premonitions tell you who they're after?"

Zane nodded his head slowly. "Yes, but I doubt you'll believe me."

"Well I trust in your 6th sense," Jay declared.

Zane smiled appreciatively at him.

"Well who?" Nya asked, intrigued.

Zane took a deep breath. "Us."

Disbelief played on everyone's faces, just as Zane suspected it would.

Jay was the first to speak up. "Alright then. So what do we do about it?"

Zane was grateful that Jay believed him. The others followed his lead and Zane could tell by their faces that they accepted the information as well.

"I want to find out why they're after us. And why..." he trailed off.

"What?" Cole asked him.

"Why I've been getting weird feelings around all of you since I've started going to this school."

Before any of them could react to the startling news, the door to the lab was flung open.

The five of them jumped, but the door closed again with only one new addition to the room, and it wasn't a Serpentine.

A ninja clad in green was leaning on the door, his muscles tensed as if he expected to be followed into the room.

Jay cleared his throat awkwardly, and the ninja realized they were also there.

"Um...Hi," Jay said, trying to ease the tension.

"You guys?" the ninja said in surprise. "Wow, talk about lucky. I was just looking for you."

The group tensed, mostly because they just found out the people (the term is used loosely) who were looking for them were the bad guys.

"And why would that be?" Cole asked apprehensively.

The ninja sighed. "I do not have time to do the whole 'why should we trust you' thing. You know about Zane's 6th sense by now, right?"

Zane was shocked that the mysterious ninja knew not only his name, but his power. "Yes, they do," he answered.

"Well, what does it say about me?"

Zane paused.

"You're trustworthy," he decided.

Kai looked at him. "Are you sure?"

Zane nodded.

"Then I say we trust him," Kai said.

The others nodded.

"Good," the ninja said. "Because we need to get out of here. Like, right now."


End file.
